🔗 Share this article

Mortal Kombat continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its initial debut in arcades. This latest compilation covering the series' initial period, which includes four arcade games, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a detailed chronicle about the development of the legendary series.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was much to discover for me to understand and value about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, section playable historical record. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The collection even includes the brand's experiments at spinoffs, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but a study of the series' formative period, when developer Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were determining how to create a combat title, produced using film material of actual people, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — which includes archival footage, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to observe several early video game creators, operating with virtually no plan or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and the founders' vocational paths at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of video recordings and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how oral tradition helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the comical physical events. The collection additionally features some unused moves and game character images among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the original releases. At various points, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or one of its home console ports to revisit its gameplay and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I dedicated most of my time playing the arcade classics, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here hold up, especially in one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the programming was in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having another person to compete with — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are precisely simulated, though I detected a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, the creators has incorporated various clever quality-of-life features and display customization choices. For example, users can elect to show each character's special moves on the display and choose to enable endless periods to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform some esoteric trick to access them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable gaming hall-style borders surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games absent the noise of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are character profiles that include bios and the various bits of lore shown through the demo sequences of coin-op titles and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

A particularly notable inclusion for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the opportunity to play a piece of "lost media" in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. This network version of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part